THE SEA URCHIN, 



BY MR. W. SHARP. 



Among the many marvels of animal and vegetable life which 

 abound around our coasts, and their name is " legion," there 

 is none which better deserves, or will more amply repay 

 careful study than the lowly creature which forms the 

 subject of this paper, the Echinus or Sea Urchin, as it is 

 popularly called. (In Guernsey, herichon). Life in any of 

 its myriad forms is wonderful, and whether we belong to the 

 old school and believe in a " separate creation," or to the more 

 modern one of " evolutionists," we cannot fail to behold the 

 Great Master Mind over-ruling and guiding all, and we feel 

 compelled to exclaim with the poet, 



" The hand that made them is Divine." 



The marvellous structure of the Sea Urchin has always 

 excited the warmest admiration of naturalists. "It is," as 

 one says, " a piece of workmanship so exquisite, so far beyond 

 all human art, so visibly demonstrating sovereign skill and 

 boundless wisdom, that a sense of awe creeps over the mind 

 as we proceed with all humility to contemplate so great 

 a miracle." l 



Let us glance for a moment at the living Urchin before 

 we proceed to examine in detail its marvellous structure. It 

 presents itself to our view as a globular, oval, or heart-shaped 

 body bearing on its surface innumerable spines, generally of a 

 greenish or purple hue, and all brightly glistening, as the 

 light is reflected from their ridges and furrows. These spines 

 are seen to be capable of moving in every direction, and 

 independently of each other, for each works on an " universal 

 joint." They serve at once as a protection, and as organs of 

 locomotion, though in this latter respect they hold quite 

 a secondary place, for by means of its sucker feet, rather than 



1. Byrnes Jones. 



